Laure Albin-Guillot is described by Christian Bouqueret as a ‘figure of transition between pictorialism and New Vision’.1 As one of the pioneering female photographers who worked both in the commercial and artistic modes of production, Albin-Guillot’s early work is marked by the modernist aesthetic and an experimental streak. But it was her portraits of French intelligentsia – widely reproduced in journals such as ‘Life’, ‘Vu’, ‘Arts et métiers graphiques’ - that consolidated Albin-Guillot’s reputation as a photographer. ‘Algiers’ c1936 displays the move from her purely formalist concerns to a more documentary vision that remains, nevertheless, poetically inclined.

Gift of Gael Newton, foundation curator of photographs, in memory of her Art Gallery of New South Wales colleagues, Ursula Prunster and Linda Slutzkin 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program